Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Menu
Everything you need to improve your Spanish
Descifrar is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to decipher, decode”.
Below are all of the conjugations for descifrar in Spanish, in all three moods (indicative/indicativo, subjunctive/subjunctivo and imperative/imperativo) and all of the tenses, for each pronoun.
The vosotros pronoun is mainly used in mainland Spain, and is the informal second-person plural – it could be considered the Spanish version of “y’all”. It is rarely found in Latin America, where ustedes is used instead.
The vos form is used instead of tú in some Spanish speaking countries of South America, especially the Southern Cone (e.g. Argentina and Uruguay) and has a different conjugation.
| English Infinitive | to decipher, decode |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | descifrar |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está descifrando) and past continuous (estaba descifrando). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. deciphering).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he descifrado and hubiera descifrado. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have deciphered).
| Gerundio / Gerund | descifrando |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | descifrado |
The basic form of speech, el indicativo is used for making statements, talking about facts, events and things that are certain and objective.
The present tense is as it sounds – it’s for talking about things that are currently going on, which are habitual, or which generally exist. In English, this would be “I decipher” or “they decipher”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | descifro |
| Tú | descifras |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descifra |
| Nosotros / as | desciframos |
| Vosotros / as | descifráis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descifran |
| Vos | descifrás |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I deciphered” or “she deciphered” in English.
In Spanish, there are two past tenses where just one is used in English; the pretérite infefinido is typically used to refer to a concrete, specific moment in time.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descifré | I deciphered |
| Tú | descifraste | You deciphered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descifró | He / she / you deciphered |
| Nosotros / as | desciframos | We deciphered |
| Vosotros / as | descifrasteis | You deciphered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descifraron | They / you deciphered |
| Vos | descifraste | You deciphered |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was deciphering” or “she was deciphering” in English, and is typically used to describe things and set a scene, talk about events without a specific timeframe, or talk about habitual events or states in the past.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descifraba | I was deciphering |
| Tú | descifrabas | You were deciphering |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descifraba | He was / she was / you were deciphering |
| Nosotros / as | descifrábamos | We were deciphering |
| Vosotros / as | descifrabais | You were deciphering |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descifraban | They / you were deciphering |
| Vos | descifrabas | You were deciphering |
The perfect tense is for talking about things which happened in the past but are still related to the present or continue into the present.
In English, these use the auxiliary verbs ‘have’ and ‘has’ – i.e. “I have deciphered” and “she has deciphered”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he descifrado | I have deciphered |
| Tú | has descifrado | You have deciphered |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha descifrado | He has / she has / you have deciphered |
| Nosotros / as | hemos descifrado | We have deciphered |
| Vosotros / as | habéis descifrado | You have deciphered |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han descifrado | They / you have deciphered |
| Vos | has descifrado | You have deciphered |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would decipher” or “she would decipher”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descifraría | I would decipher |
| Tú | descifrarías | You would decipher |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descifraría | He / she / you would decipher |
| Nosotros / as | descifraríamos | We would decipher |
| Vosotros / as | descifraríais | You would decipher |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descifrarían | They / you would decipher |
| Vos | descifrarías | You would decipher |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will decipher” or “they will decipher”.
It is more commonly used for making a hypothesis about the present. To talk about the future, Spanish speakers frequently use “ir + a + infinivo”, e.g. “van a descifrar” means “They are going to decipher”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descifraré | I will decipher |
| Tú | descifrarás | You will decipher |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descifrará | He / she / you will decipher |
| Nosotros / as | descifraremos | We will decipher |
| Vosotros / as | descifraréis | You will decipher |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descifrarán | They / you will decipher |
| Vos | descifrarás | You will decipher |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | descifre |
| Tú | descifres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descifre |
| Nosotros / as | descifremos |
| Vosotros / as | descifréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descifren |
| Vos | descifres |
There are two ways to form the imperfect subjunctive.
The first option sees verbs ending in -era (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ara (for -ar verbs), while the second sees verbs ending in -ese (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ase (for -ar verbs).
There is no difference between these two forms, and Spanish speakers use them interchangeably.
| Pronoun | Spanish era/ara | Spanish ese/ase |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | descifrara | descifrase |
| Tú | descifraras | descifrase |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descifrara | descifrase |
| Nosotros / as | descifráramos | descifrásemos |
| Vosotros / as | descifrarais | descifraseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descifraran | descifrasen |
| Vos | descifraras | descifrase |
The future subjunctive is no longer used in modern-day Spanish, apart from in literary and legal contexts, and there is no need to learn it.
It is formed the same as the past/imperfect subjunctive, but with -e endings instead of -a endings.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | descifrare |
| Tú | descifrares |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descifrare |
| Nosotros / as | descifráremos |
| Vosotros / as | descifrareis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descifraren |
| Vos | descifrares |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “decipher!” and “don’t decipher!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | descifra | no descifres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | descifre | no descifre |
| Nosotros / as | descifremos | no descifremos |
| Vosotros / as | descifrad | no descifréis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | descifren | no descifren |
| Vos | descifrada | no descifres |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya descifrado |
| Tú | hayas descifrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya descifrado |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos descifrado |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis descifrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan descifrado |
| Vos | hayas descifrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera descifrado / hubiese descifrado |
| Tú | hubieras descifrado / hubieses descifrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera descifrado / hubiese descifrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos descifrado / hubiésemos descifrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais descifrado / hubieseis descifrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran descifrado / hubiesen descifrado |
| Vos | hubieras descifrado / hubieses descifrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere descifrado |
| Tú | hubieres descifrado |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere descifrado |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos descifrado |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis descifrado |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren descifrado |
| Vos | hubieres descifrado |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté descifrando |
| Tú | estés descifrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté descifrando |
| Nosotros / as | estemos descifrando |
| Vosotros / as | estéis descifrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén descifrando |
| Vos | estés descifrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera descifrando / estuviese descifrando |
| Tú | estuvieras descifrando / estuvieses descifrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera descifrando / estuviese descifrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos descifrando / estuviésamos descifrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais descifrando / estuvieseis descifrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera descifrando / estuviese descifrando |
| Vos | estuvieras descifrando / estuvieses descifrando |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere descifrando |
| Tú | estuvieres descifrando |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere descifrando |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos descifrando |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis descifrando |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere descifrando |
| Vos | estuvieres descifrando |
Voseo is the practice of using ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’ as the second-person singular pronoun, and is common throughout much of South America.
There are various versions of ‘voseo’ used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The conjugations for the most common type – used throughout Argentina, parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguya and Uruguay are below.
The present indicative (presente de indicativo) and affirmative imperative (imperativo) have different conjugations from the tú form, while all other tenses generally use the tú form.
| Tense | Vos Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Present Indicative Presente de Indicativo | Vos descifrás |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos descifraste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos descifrabas |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos descifrarías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos descifrarás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos descifres |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos descifraras / Vos descifrase |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos descifrada |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no descifres |